Give it a CHANCE

I’m writing this post to draw attention to a show of which I was completely unaware on a streaming platform that never held any appeal for me.

The show is Chance and it is available on Hulu.

Hulu was originally the website that was the repository of recently broadcast shows and existed for people who may have missed a show when it was first run. It was like a DVR service without the equipment. Initially it was free with commercials, and then it became a pay site with commercials which seemed to be an excellent way to chase off viewers. Eventually an ad-free tier was added, but it is more expensive. I had no interest in what was being offered, and I thought the whole enterprise was slouching towards irrelevance. It was like the old canard that people had about cable TV — 200 channels with nothing on it. Who wanted to watch bad reruns?

Then I found a show I wanted to watch and I saw that Hulu had a free, month long trial offer. I thought I would give it a try, watch the show I wanted to watch and then cancel the subscription. I watched my show which turned out to be mediocre, but then I watched Dopesick. After that I watched American Crime Story. I started watching The Dropout and I realized that I had overstayed my free trial. Hulu had me!

Okay, they had my money — two months of it, and I had sprung for the more expensive ad-free subscription. Nothing kills the mood quicker than delirious people selling air fresheners or unfunny actors selling insurance. I thought I had seen everything I cared to and was going to cancel the service. At least I thought I was until I chanced upon Chance.

I won’t go into too much detail not wanting to spoil any thing, but it does star Hugh Laurie who plays another doctor. Relax! It’s not a medical drama. It’s a noirish crime drama and Chance is nothing like House.

The rest of the cast is terrific, but the real standout to me is Ethan Suplee who plays a supporting character and sidekick of sorts to Chance. You may remember him as the affable oaf Randy in My Name is Earl. He is nothing like Randy in this show.

Sadly, the show debuted on Hulu in 2016 and was criminally cancelled after only two seasons. Streaming channels work in mysterious and often confounding ways.

Head over to Hulu and sign up for a free month. Give Chance a chance! You won’t be sorry! There’s also a number of other shows that are worth checking out. They may not have a library as big as Netflix or Amazon, but it doesn’t feel like it takes half an hour to find something worth watching.